by Amanda Boone
Although she remembered next to nothing about her life on Earth, she knew one thing for certain. She had not wanted to join him. She had only done so because he had stolen her soul, and she’d had no choice.
One other thing she knew was that something had happened with her pregnancy because her skin had turned a peach color. It was not fuchsia as it had been when Tyr had declared that she was having his child. She didn’t know what that meant for them, and she was concerned that he no longer wanted her for a mate. In fact, he hadn’t even touched her since the evening they spent at the lake and grotto. What did that mean here on Cartonia?
“Don’t you just love the palace?” Lynne asked from behind her.
Startled, Jane turned toward Lynne and Fenrir. During the few Cartonian days that she had been living in the castle with them, she and Lynne had become quite good friends.
“I didn’t hear you come in,” Jane said. “Yes, it’s a wonderful place.”
“You should see the throne room. It’s even better than this.”
“What am I supposed to do when I meet the prince and princess? Am I supposed to bow to them?”
“Don’t bother,” Lynne explained. “Princess Melanie doesn’t like the formality, so everybody here just nods their head in acknowledgement.”
“Do we stand until they arrive?”
“Absolutely. Once they are seated, you can sit.”
Glad that Lynne was there to give her direction, Jane turned her attention to the three young men who entered the room. All were the color of bronze with silver-white hair; all were dressed in jumpsuits made of copper material. Contrary to their social standing and ability to have a life of leisure, they were all built like they worked hard for a living. Jane marveled at how she could tell these things when they were clothed, but she could.
“How old are those men?” Jane asked Lynne in a whisper.
“I don’t know. Like I said, time here is different than on Earth, so I can’t tell.”
The tallest of the trio came over to them and stopped in front of Tyr.
“Hello, Tyr,” he said in a pleasant tone. “How are you today?”
“I am fine,” Tyr replied. “Hermo’our, this is my mate, Jane.”
Chapter 1
The bronze man nodded toward Jane but continued speaking to Tyr as though Jane wasn’t there. “I never thought I would see the day that you took a mate.”
“Nor did I,” Tyr replied, “however, Uncle Fenrir convinced me to go to Earth, where I found Jane. She is very kind and helpful.”
“Ah, a helpmate. I understand now. Welcome to the palace, Jane,” Hermo’our said to her.
“Thank you,” she replied.
“We must speak and become better acquainted. You would not mind, would you, Tyr?”
“Please do,” Tyr said. “My mate is one you would enjoy.”
Jane studied Tyr suspiciously. The way Tyr spoke made it sound like he hadn’t brought her to Cartonia to be his mate but, instead, chose her for Hermo’our. Was that why Tyr suddenly wanted nothing to do with her? Had his choice of a mate been more for Hermo’our than for himself?
“Shall we sit?” Hermo’our said as he gestured toward a table with his arm. “Tyr, would you choose a place?”
To Jane’s disappointment, the prince and princess did not join them. Only the sons—Hermo’our, Borr and Forseti—joined Lynne, Fenrir, Tyr and her for the meal. Lynne seemed happy, but Fenrir appeared to be suspicious. Tyr chatted amicably with Hermo’our and tried to draw Jane into the conversation many times. She suspected that she was right to think that Tyr had brought her to Cartonia for Hermo’our.
“Would you like to see more of the palace, Jane?” Hermo’our asked after they ate.
“Please,” she replied.
While they wandered through the building with its glistening walls and lavish furnishings, Hermo’our explained why she was there. Much to her relief, Tyr had not brought her to Cartonia for his friend. Tyr had just realized that, although he liked Jane, he was not interested in being her mate. Therefore, he gave her a potion that would take away the child.
“I can’t believe someone would do that,” Jane said, offended by the notion. “What if I had wanted that child?”
“Did you?” Hermo’our asked.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t sure how I should feel about it.”
“If you want a child, I would be happy to mate with you. In fact, I would consider it an honor.”
He pulled her into a nearby room and closed the door behind them. Pinning her against a wall with his body, he gazed down at her. In a throaty whisper, he said, “You must realize that I am a prince, and I am heir to the throne. Any child of mine would also be heir, and you would be my mate for life. On Cartonia, once one mates and has a child, the pair is together forever.”
Not liking the position he had her in, she pushed against the soft material covering his solid chest. “What happens if the mates are not able to procreate?”
“Mating for life, then, is not required,” he explained as he leaned against her again. “We must replenish the population on Cartonia, so we must eliminate those pairings that do not produce offspring.”
With his body pressing against hers against the wall, Jane could feel his hardness. She remembered that, on Earth, a male would rub against a female to show how much he desired her. Apparently, here on Cartonia, a male needed nothing more than to lean against the female.
“Tyr is more than my relative,” Hermo’our said. “He is also my closest friend. He found a female that he knew I could take as a mate in case he did not want her. Now I need not waste my time by going to Earth to find my own mate.”
She pushed him away from her again, this time scooting along the wall to avoid him.
Furious about what she perceived as a fraud, she said, “How dare he treat me like that! I am not a piece of art that you two can trade back and forth.”
“No, no,” Hermo’our said. “You do not understand. He brought you because he thought he could be your mate forever, but he discovered that he could not. I do not know what it is like on Earth, but on Cartonia, there are males who do not wish to mate with females. It is not a bad reflection on you. It is simply the way Tyr feels about all mating.”
“So he would rather be with another male? But he seemed to enjoy mating with me.”
“He told me that he only said he did to please you. He did not wish to offend you.”
“Well, I am offended. I want to go back to Earth.”
“I am sorry, but you cannot. Earth now is nothing like you would remember it. Besides, your body is gone. You would have to return as someone else by returning in a dying body.”
“I can’t go back?” she asked in shock.
“It is all right,” he replied as he grasped her shoulders tenderly. “I will mate with you and provide for you. You will live here in the palace. I know that my mother will like you.”
He drew her to him and wrapped his arms around her. Numb with this new knowledge, Jane didn’t protest when his lips caught hers.
His hands moved to her jumpsuit zipper and pulled it down. He reached inside her clothing and caressed her naked breast. To her surprise, his mere touch inflamed her senses. She wanted him—but she couldn’t do this. She had just met him.
As badly as she wanted to push away from him, she couldn’t. She was drawn to him as though he was a strong magnet, and she couldn’t break their kiss.
Chapter 2
This embrace with Hermo’our was nothing like the ones she’d shared with Tyr. If she had wanted, she knew she would have been able to stop him.
Hermo’our’s tongue touched her lips, and she parted them enough to allow its entrance to her mouth. Their tongues dueled for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, drawing up all of her power, she pushed him away.
Stunned, he stared down at her and said, “No female has ever done that to me before.”
“Done what? Broken your kiss?”
“Corre
ct.” He unzipped his jumpsuit and let it fall to the floor around his ankles.
Jane found it impossible not to look at his organ, which was erect with desire. Her gaze drifted down to his muscular thighs and calves before she returned to his maleness and moved upward. His abdomen was so well defined that she found that she needed to touch it.
Reaching out, she let her fingers slide up his rippled stomach to the defined pectorals and the well-developed shoulders. His upper arms were powerfully built.
“Does my body change your mind?” he asked.
“Your body is more than perfect,” she breathed, “but I haven’t changed my mind. We cannot mate yet. I want to know you better.”
“You will know me after we mate. That it how is works here on Cartonia. Once we have joined, we know everything about each other.”
“Not today, Prince Hermo’our.”
“Then we shall mate tomorrow.”
Deciding it was better not to tell him that it may not be tomorrow, either, she said, “I would like to see more of the palace if I am to live here.”
“As you wish,” Hermo’our said as he pulled up his jumpsuit and zipped it. Then he zipped Jane’s clothes. “Come along.”
By the time they ended the tour, Jane was so enamored of Hermo’our that she regretted spurning his advances. The power he had over her was much stronger than she believed possible. Was it because of his standing in Cartonia? Or was she truly interested in this man? Would he accept her if she agreed now? She hoped so, but she didn’t want to tempt him into mating only to be turned away. From the way he acted earlier, though, she didn’t think that would happen.
To test him, she said, “I don’t believe you showed me your bedroom, Hermo’our.”
“I did not think you would want to see it, but if that is what you would like, I will gladly take you there.”
Before long, they stood in his bed chamber. A fireplace adorned one golden wall with a fire roaring in it. His room, however, seemed as though it had never been cold, even without a fire. His large, silver bed stood on the opposite wall. There were other items of silver in the room, but she saw only the mattress on the bed, which looked softer than she believed she’d ever seen.
She wandered over to it and pushed it down. It gave way with a spongy softness. Turning toward Hermo’our, she unzipped her jumpsuit and beckoned him to join her.
Without a word, he strode up to her. His hands caressed her firm breasts then moved up to her shoulders and down her arms, taking the material of her clothes with him. With her arms now bare, he pushed the suit from her hips, and it dropped to the floor at her ankles. Jane stepped out of it.
His hand went between her legs, to her womanhood. He slipped one finger and then a second into her. In a moment, she was wet with excitement.
“Lie down,” he said as he removed his fingers.
While he scrambled out of his jumpsuit, Jane lay down atop the covers and spread her legs to give him easy access to her. To her surprise, he knelt between her legs and lifted her knees. He bent over and kissed her opening before his tongue slithered up her mound, over her stomach, to her breasts, where he suckled on one nipple while he taunted her excitement with his fingers, getting her wetter by the moment.
She writhed on the bed. She was now his for the taking—if he would just take her. He quit suckling and licked the other nipple before moving upward with his tongue, burning her skin as it made its way over her neck. His tongue slid up her throat and over her chin until it circled her lips.
Unable to wait a moment longer, she grabbed his head and kissed him. Grasping his male organ, she led him to her hot, wet passage. When he was just at the opening, he stopped and removed her hand.
Then he bore into her, grinding their pelvic regions together and bringing her closer to fulfillment. He stopped a moment to simply kiss her while in her body. But Jane couldn’t resist. She needed to move, so she rotated her hips under him until he returned the motion. At that point, Jane could bear no more and exploded in a release unlike any Tyr had ever given her.
Hermo’our drove into her deeper and held his place until he emptied into her and collapsed next to her on the bed.
“You are my mate now, Jane,” he declared. “Forever.”
“What if I don’t produce a child for you?”
“Forever. I will never give you back to Tyr or to anyone else. You are mine.”
Suddenly, a thought came to her that she had held at bay in the back of her mind.
“Oh, my God!” she exclaimed. “I must tell you something Tyr told me. It was in confidence, but if you are now my mate, I must tell you.”
“What is it?”
“Fenrir is plotting to overthrow your father and take the throne for himself.”
Chapter 3
The fury in Hermo’our’s voice frightened Jane. “Why did Tyr not tell me this?”
“I don’t know for certain,” Jane replied, “but I think it was because he couldn’t make up his mind about helping Fenrir or not. His uncle wants him to be a guard for your father.”
Hermo’our was very emphatic and pronounced each word as though it were a sentence “I. Will. Not. Let. Him. Do. This.”
“Please don’t tell him that I’m the one who revealed the plot.”
“I will not tell him, although he may surmise it.” Hermo’our rose and dressed. “I will stop this coup against my father, and I will see that Fenrir never attempts another. And if I must, I will kill my dear friend to keep him from accomplishing the same.”
“Let me help you, Hermo’our.”
“You are a female. How could you help?”
“We’ll think of something,” she insisted. “Why don’t we begin our own plot right now?”
As they discussed what they should do to thwart the coup Fenrir was plotting, Jane felt something familiar in her chest, but she couldn’t remember what it meant. Her chest tightened with happiness; she knew that much. And she knew that this was something she had felt on Earth.
All she could say for sure was that Hermo’our had some sort of mysterious hold on her. She wasn’t at all upset that Tyr had given her to Hermo’our; in fact, she was glad that he had. She truly enjoyed Hermo’our’s company, whereas, she merely tolerated Tyr’s.
What was that feeling in her chest? If only, she could place it.
***
Awed by the opulence of the throne room, Jane approached the male and female sitting in the middle two thrones. The woman looked nothing like the other residents she’d seen on Cartonia. She was much shorter than the other females, and her features weren’t perfect like the others. Her nose was just a little large, and the smile she offered was a bit crooked.
“Mom,” Hermo’our said. “Dad, this is my mate, Jane.”
The female’s silver-blue eyes sparkled, and she smiled broadly. “Wonderful, Hermo’our! You found an Earth woman for your mate.”
“Actually, Mom, my friend Tyr found her. You remember him. He is the nephew of Fenrir. He did not want her, and I was more than willing to accept her as my mate. Jane, this is my mother, Princess Melanie, and my father, Prince Odin.”
Jane nodded once in their direction as Lynne had told her was the custom.
“Welcome, Jane,” Melanie said cheerfully. “I’m so pleased to know that we have something in common. When we finish here, you and I will take a walk on the beach.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Jane agreed, not knowing why she had said such a thing.
“Terrific! You still remember some of the Earth customs. You don’t need to be so formal with me in private. Just call me Melanie. And my husband is simply Odin in private.”
Odin chuckled. “I am afraid my mate has instilled some bad habits in me, but I am glad. She keeps me happy with her Earthly ways.”
“Dad,” Hermo’our interrupted, “we are here on urgent business.”
“And that is?” Odin asked.
“Your cousin Fenrir is plotting against you. He wishes to take over the th
rone.”
Chapter 4
Stiffening on his throne, Odin said nothing for a moment then intoned, “This cannot be true. Fenrir and I have been more than cousins our entire lives. We have been the closest of friends.”
“It is true. Tyr told Jane that Fenrir wants him to infiltrate the palace by being a guard. Jane told me everything about it. We need to take action to stop him.”
“You have not known Jane but a short time.”
Melanie laid her hand on Odin’s arm. “Odin, please. I believe that Jane’s telling the truth. I overheard someone planning, but I didn’t know who it was, and I wasn’t sure what to tell you about it. Since nothing happened, I thought maybe I misunderstood. This was quite a while back.”
“You should have told me,” he insisted.
“I know, but like I said, nothing happened. I never heard anything more about it until just now.”
“Jane and I have a plan, Dad, and I think it will be a good one. Since Tyr has said nothing to me about this, I believe that he will do as Fenrir wants. We should let Tyr become a guard at the palace. Jane will stay with him for now, telling him that she does not want to be my mate.”
Melanie gasped at the idea. “No, Hermo’our. You can’t let Jane do that. It isn’t safe.”
“He does not want her and will not mate with her again. He told me this himself. Jane will be safe. She can tell us whatever she hears from Tyr and Fenrir. She has already told Tyr that she will agree to whatever he wants, so he will not know that she reports to me. He will think only that you befriended her. You and Jane will be in communication often.”
“I’m very uncomfortable doing this, Hermie,” Melanie said, using her nickname for him this time, “but you’re a good soldier. As long as you and Jane talk daily, I’ll accept your plan. Odin?”
“I will agree,” he said. “We will have to be wary of Tyr, though. We must watch him closely.”
